Open letter requesting withdrawal of the SLAPP lawsuits against N1 in Slovenia

01 August 2025

For the attention of:

Vesna Marinko, President of the Board

Damijan Perne, Managing Director

University Psychiatric Clinic of Ljubljana

Ljubljana, Chengdujska cesta 45, 

SI-1260 Ljubljana – Polje

Dear management of the University Psychiatric Clinic of Ljubljana,

The undersigned partner organisations of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) are writing to express our shared concerns regarding the six civil defamation lawsuits filed by your institution, the University Psychiatric Clinic of Ljubljana, against the media outlet N1 and its journalists. 

The lawsuits, filed between April and July 2024 and made public in February 2025, seek 70.000 EUR for the first lawsuit, and 25.000 EUR in compensation for each of the five consecutive ones. This amounts to a total of 195.000 EUR. This legal action targets the N1 itself and its affiliates, and we believe it aims to intimidate and silence journalists Barbara M. Smajila and Katja Šeruga.

The lawsuits were filed after a series of investigative reports alleging the use of violence within the clinic’s facilities, a topic we consider to be of clear public interest. Our analysis has led us to conclude that the University is exploiting its position as a public institution with access to public funding to sue the media outlet and journalists in six separate cases as a form of pressure. The clinic claimed that almost all the facts published in the article were untrue, without specifying which parts were defamatory. Furthermore, the media outlet included your clinic’s responses in the article. Notably, the lawsuits target both the media outlet and individual journalists. 

Based on these characteristics of the lawsuits, we consider them to be strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), namely a form of legal harassment intended to discourage journalists from pursuing investigative reporting. 

We call on your management to withdraw these lawsuits from the court and to avoid hindering journalists that shed light on the alleged violations in the clinic’s facilities. Holding institutions accountable is a key component of a functioning democracy. This is particularly troubling in the current climate, where the integrity and independence of the media are increasingly under pressure. 

MFRR has been actively calling on the government of Slovenia to transpose the EU Anti-SLAPP directive, and to pass anti-SLAPP reforms which are aimed at protecting media from lawsuits such as this one. Namely, the implementation of the Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)2 against SLAPPs should ensure that such lawsuits are dismissed by the judges as early as possible. 

We call on the University Psychiatric Clinic of Ljubljana to immediately withdraw all lawsuits from the Ljubljana Basic Court. We will be closely monitoring these cases. We express solidarity with N1 and its journalists, reaffirming our commitment to defending press freedom and public interest journalism.

This statement was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries.